Make sure that you tune in tomorrow night to BBC 4 where “in the first of a new series entitled “Science and Islam” physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries. Its legacy is tangible, with terms like algebra, algorithm and alkali all being Arabic in origin and at the very heart of modern science – there would be no modern mathematics or physics without algebra, no computers without algorithms and no chemistry without alkalis. For Baghdad-born Al-Khalili this is also a personal journey and on his travels he uncovers a diverse and outward-looking culture, fascinated by learning and obsessed with science“.
LOL – you couldn’t make it up. Outward-looking culture.
M for Muslim perhaps? That’s why he/she termed us as ignorant.
M writes:
This is an extremely disturbing blog. It frightens me to come across such ignorance and hatred.
Oh please.If I was to walk into a room full of the posters on this blog or the bBC mosque guess where i would feel the safetest.
Clue I’m an apostate from Islam and I’m sure if I was to bleat like Frank Gardner for my life. The likes of the beeb wannabe Muslims would soon be singing Allah ackba in my ear.
P.S
I promise I would only harm a few of them before I am beaten to a plup.
How about Ramzi Youssef for his selfless , dedicated contributions to Islamic science and the art of manufacturing undetectable miniaturised explosive devices to advance the cause of Islamic culture? perhaps he might get on “the List”.
every airport security firm is benefiting finacially from his discoveries.
The acid test: how many Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine.
Al-Gore?
“It is incredible that we are only now uncovering the debt that today’s physicists owe to an Arab who lived 1,000 years ago”
incredible indeed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Jones'_Barbarians
BBCs recent contribution to Roman History, trashing Rome and promoting its rivals. Very PC affair.
Terry Jones did a similar thing with Chivalry and the medieval period. While the Barbarians one was watchable, that Medieval one was appalling, even i had to turn off it was so dreadful and i am a junkie for history, science etc.
that link didnt work. try again
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Jones'_Barbarians
dnt know what the fk is up with haloscan. pissng me off. stupid retarded tech
Since no one i believe has mentioned or ventured near the subject- how about the fact that scientifically clueless BBC is able to enjoy its self appointed divinity today because of the massive technological invetions of those they hate so much – The Israelis. All that intel, wifi,mobile technology developed in Israel enabling to spread their tentacles of disinformation even further around the world!
adam | 05.01.09 – 3:40 pm
dnt know what the fk is up with haloscan
As is well known, Haloscan was developed during the Abbassid Caliphate by the pioneering Islamic net geek, Mustapha Fag.
It has changed little during the intervening years owing to the almost total cultural, economic and technological stasis of the Ummah.
As is well known, Haloscan was developed during the Abbassid Caliphate by the pioneering Islamic net geek, Mustapha Fag.
It has changed little during the intervening years owing to the almost total cultural, economic and technological stasis of the Ummah.
Tom | 05.01.09 – 5:56 pm | #
That’s hilarious. V. funny.
Dear God, I have this on in the background and some Islamic talking head just said that the superior knowledge of Islam is what induced their conquered peoples to convert.
No mention of non-Muslims being second class citizens with little or no rights.
Back in the 70’s when the Russians came out with their design for the Su27 the Americans started a huge man hunt for the traitor that gave the russians the plans for the F15.
That traitor never existed and probably illustrates what we have here in that 2 different sets of people, with absolutely no connection to each when confronted by the same problem will come up with very similar solutions.
So Im struggling to see where exactly muslims would have been copied simply because of the gulf that existed between Islam and Christianity.
Mailman
talking head just said that the superior knowledge of Islam is what induced their conquered peoples to convert.
No mention of non-Muslims being second class citizens
no mention of the sword at their throats either.
Much of this marvels-of-Islamic-learning mythology centres on Al-Khwarizmi’s he was responsible for introducing the Arabic numerals, based on the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed in Indian mathematics, to the Western world. The term “algorithm” is named after him etc.
But if it had been left to the Islamic world, we’d never have heard of any of these….. it was a Christian scholar who preserved them for posterity.
Al-Khwārizmī’s second major work was on the subject of arithmetic, which survived in a Latin translation but was lost in the original Arabic. The translation was most likely done in the twelfth century by Adelard of Bath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi
The oldest building in Europe is 5,000 years old and is in the West of Ireland. On mid-winter’s day at sunrise a shaft of sunlight moves in an arc across a burial chamber until, at sunrise, the light hits a spot in the centre of the room. Let’s see, architecture, engineering prowess, astronomy and more than a slight knowledge of geometry, trigonometry and lots of other ometry type words. But these were Pagans! Shock horror!
And the Babylonians and Egyptians did this sort of thing even earlier than that 😉
Let’s just say for argument’s sake that the al Beeb fawnfest is right (which is clearly isn’t).
What did they do with all that knowledge? Go to any Muslim country apart from the oil-rich emirates (which function on mainly non-Arab skills and labour in any case) and what do you see?
Barely functioning sh*tholes with a culture that hasn’t changed in centuries, other than the addition of some western technology and inventions, that’s what.
So where are the Islamic apologists actually going with this presentation of Islam as enlightened and science-friendly? Because it isn’t now.
This all like Dr Evil’s father claiming to have invented the question mark.
Even if true it pales in comparison to the rest of the alphabet and punctuation marks. Yet we are supposed to believe that the whole of modern science hinges on a few key non-European factors.
See also claims that modern popular music is largely (or at least partly) the creation of black people. This only works if you discount the white contribution. The instruments, amplification, studio technology, recording technology, radio, vinyl, CDs, tape, MP3s etc etc Once you factor that in the black %age contribution fades away.
Great thread – what an entertaining and witty bunch you are (I’m not being sarcastic, btw). Believe it or not there is a phenomenon called “multicultural” maths. Its purpose is to include outsiders, and to presumably make the white man feel less arrogant about his achievements.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Multicultural-Maths-Activities/dp/1860255124
It doesn’t seem to be doing any good – the education system continues to churn out poorly-schooled and innumerate hordes. But, at least they don’t have any of those pesky self-esteem issues.
This blog is indeed frightening about Science & Islam. Much of what is covered in this excellent series was taught me as a new science undergraduate in 1961 by an esteemed (FRS) scientist – one of the famous wartime ones. I do think the BBC is generally biased to the liberal left – albeit I am a non political libertarian. But in this case, perhaps the main bias is only that it has taken the present troubles for the BBC to care to present a more world view of the history of science. This is the crux of problem – violence can be relied upon to breed a BBC reaction. Otherwise they remain culturally apathetic.